The specifications in terms of data rate of new telecommunication satellites entail the presence of a large number of items of microwave equipment, such as conversion chains, which must often be redundant so as to observe reliability specifications.
The centralization of redundancy in a satellite presents technical difficulties which may limit the complexity of the payload, increase its cost, or else decrease its reliability by omitting or simplifying redundancy.
The assemblies of frequency conversion chains or other items of microwave equipment are currently produced using hybrid technology, with redundancy centralized in the satellite.
The term “hybrid technology” is understood to mean an element comprising one or more insulated substrates, generally made of ceramic, on which active and passive components are interconnected with a view to performing an electrical function; the active components may be bare chips or packaged components, the passive components may be printed on the substrate or be components that are bonded and wired. In any case, the components are added by microelectronic bonding and wiring, unlike in the case of board technology which uses surface-mounted components, assembled by soldering on a printed circuit board.
For this type of equipment, the redundancy rings are produced using coaxial (generally tee-type) switches which are interconnected by a radiofrequency or RF harness (coaxial connectors and cable) and a DC (direct-current) harness.
These existing solutions use coaxial switches which are expensive (>€4k per switch) and heavy, even when they are incorporated in the form of an assembly. Additionally, the cost of integration of each switch in the payload is high.